American Gods

A very very compelling read.

I loved the story, the characters, the setting. This truly does capture the strangely mystic nature of the flyover states in America.

I listened to a full cast audiobook version during my work commute, and I had moments of straight up yelling in anger or shouting in joy at the audio at the events. It's just a wonderful book.

My only gripe is some of the language used. In the first half of the book in particular, the author had a weird obsession with writing about women's nipples. Every single female character had their breasts and nipples described in a weird amount of detail.

Like, I know some of the characters are literally sex gods, and I understood them being described in Full Detail. But like, moon goddess in a nightgown? Didn't need to know about her nips.

Thankfully, after all the major players are introduced, that stops. But it did make me just stare at my car sometimes with a "why am I being told this'" while driving.

American Gods is a modern fantasy classic. The concept underpinning its world is simple and intuitive, but leaves room for mystique. Neil Gaiman has a talent for making the spaces in his fantasy seem completely believable and real; his fantasy is at once outlandish and familiar, vividly grounded yet unpredictable at every turn. The plot of this book is not remarkable, but it will drive you forward with the desire to explore whatever space Gaiman brings you to next, and each flows into the next beautifully. American Gods also makes its characters interesting almost the minute they appear on the page; there is not one character who overstays their welcome, and few are one dimensional, despite this being a not-so-long book with a huge cast.

From a critical standpoint, American Gods has opinions on the status of immigrants in the United States, and certainly views the United States through the archetypal "melting pot" lens, and through the lens of someone visiting rather than someone who lives there. This novel questions the meaning of religion and cultural values, and ties those things to an Americana aesthetic. It sees old religions and traditions as things reduced almost to kitsch by consumerism, and depicts some of those things as battling desperately to restore their dignity in the modern world. It takes the "melting pot" cliche and challenges its ideas with the current state of the nation's culture, with engrossing results.

I wholeheartedly recommend American Gods to anyone, typical fantasy reader or no. It's a wonderful novel that can be appreciated for many different strengths.